1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments described herein relate generally to electrical interconnections in high-speed circuits. In particular, some example embodiments relate to vertical high-speed signal transitions through multilayer circuits.
2. Related Technology
Due to process technology limits and other design challenges, creating inexpensive and efficient packaging of components in high-speed circuits is difficult. Components frequently rely on bulky and/or expensive interconnections. Such interconnections include coaxial cable and microwave/radio frequency (RF) connectors such as GPPO interconnectors manufactured by Corning Gilbert Inc. or V-Connectors manufactured by Anritsu Company. In addition to high costs and space consumption, such cables and connectors introduce complexity to component packaging.
Coaxial cables and their associated connectors can be eliminated by using vertical signal interconnects. In this discussion, circuit layers are considered a horizontal reference, thus the term vertical refers to any across-layer orientation. However, vertical transitions can critically degrade performance when transmitting high-speed signals by introducing transmission losses, reflection losses, electromagnetic interference and reduced bandwidth, among other issues. Design challenges due to impedance mismatch can also be introduced when transitioning high-speed signal transmissions between a component package housing a vertical signal interconnect and a printed circuit board (PCB). Because of these design challenges, current component packaging making use of vertical transitions are suitable only for signal frequencies below 20 GHz. Thus, no satisfactory technology exists for replacing coaxial cables and associated connectors with surface-mountable electrical interconnections in high-speed circuits.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one example technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.